Reports: Castro’s Health Deteriorating - THE TYRANT's END IS NEAR- THE CUBAN PEOPLE CELEBRATE

The Madrid paper Hechos De Hoy and the Mexican newspaper Reforma both say Castro can no longer eat solid food and is hooked up to an IV after recent emergency surgery.

Reforma also reported that Castro has lost a great deal of weight and does not want to walk or receive visitors.

Several other developments seem to confirm that Castro is severely ailing:

Castro did not appear in public on his 81st birthday, on Aug. 13, and there were no major celebrations to mark the event. He has not appeared in public for over a year. Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage telephoned Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s talk show on Sunday, Aug. 5, to fill in for Castro, who usually phones. Lage did not explain why Castro did not call, the Miami Herald reported. Cuban dissidents say that Internet access has been curtailed for the very few Cubans who have it — mostly trusted “journalists” who work for the regime’s official publications. Their correspondence is now routed through one government-monitored Web portal. The Spanish news agency EFE quoted Mariela Castro — daughter of Fidel’s brother Raul and a Castro family spokesperson — as saying: “The concern that we all had about losing our leader is now closer to us.” She also reportedly said: “For the first time, the people are taking stock of [Fidel’s] process of aging, the process that the revolution has to continue without him, be it with my father or with other leaders who will come.”